| Identification of the wreck of the U.S.C.S.S. Robert J. Walker off Atlantic City, New Jersey - :2649 | National Ocean Service (NOS)

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"From June 21 to 24, 2013, a NOAA team from the Office of Coast Survey and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries conducted a joint mission to characterize a shipwreck off the coast of New Jersey near Absecon Inlet and Atlantic City. While known to and regularly visited by recreational SCUBA divers, the shipwreck was brought to NOAA's attention by archaeologist Joyce Steinmetz, who hypothesized that it was the remains of the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer Robert J. Walker. However, the shipwreck had not undergone any archaeological assessment to provide evidence to either affirm or refute this identification. During the June 2013 fieldwork, hydrographers on the NOAA Ship Thomas Jefferson surveyed the site and its surroundings with high-resolution multibeam and side-scan sonar. This work was followed by a close order side scan sonar survey and archaeological SCUBA dives conducted from the NOAA R/V SRVx that acoustically and visually characterized the shipwreck and its debris field. The data gathered by the project confirmed that the shipwreck was U.S.C.S.S. Robert J. Walker, lost off Absecon Inlet on June 21, 1860"--Abstract.

Maritime Heritage Program series ; No. 1
Maritime Heritage Program series No. 1

Description:

The sidewheel steamer Planter gained national fame when a group of enslaved African Americans commandeered the Confederate ship and made a successful flight to freedom. under the leadership of Robert Smalls, the ship's wheelsman and an African Americ...